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In Pictures: Martin Luther, Wittenberg and the Reformation

All Saints' Church in Wittenberg became famous in the 16th Century as the place where the 95 Theses were posted by Martin Luther. This document was important in the spread of Protestantism - especially Lutheranism - across Europe during the reformation. (All pictures by David Lutwyche)

Martin Luther was a German monk in the early 16th Century. Ordained as an Augustan Friar in 1507 he began teaching theology at Wittenberg University in 1512.

Luther became increasingly unhappy about the sale of indulgences - promised remission from punishments for sin. He believed that salvation was not earned by good deeds, but received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith. This put him at odds with the Catholic Church.

On 31 October, 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, attacking papal abuses and the sale of indulgences. These were nailed to the wooden doors of All Saints Church.

The original doors were destroyed by fire during the Seven Years War in 1760, but in 1858 Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered commemorative bronze doors to be mounted where the original wooden ones had been located. The 95 Theses were inscribed in their original Latin form on the replacements.

Luther wrote a number of different theological pamphlets which were published widely on newly invented printing presses. But his theology caused him to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Leo X in 1521. He was then summoned to appear at the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire.

Luther refused to recant and Emperor Charles V declared him an outlaw and a heretic. Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle but in 1522 returned to Wittenberg and later married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, with whom he had six children.

Luther's influence spread across northern and eastern Europe and his fame made Wittenberg an intellectual centre. He died on 18 February 1546 in Eisleben.

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